| There are many challenges and rewards to having a sibling with a disability. A sibling relationship is often the longest relationship a person will have throughout his or her lifetime. When one of the siblings has a disability, it can greatly affect the life of the nondisabled sibling in both positive and negative ways. The disabilities focused on in this study were Pervasive Developmental Disorders (PDD). PDD is defined as "a severe and pervasive impairment in the development of reciprocal social interaction associated with impairment in either verbal or nonverbal communication skills or with the presence of stereotyped behavior, interests, or activities" (American Psychiatric Association, 2004, p. 64). These were the disorders targeted for this study for many reasons, primarily because some individuals with these disorders have difficulties forming and maintaining complex reciprocal relationships. This researcher was interested in the ways in which nondisabled siblings cope with this altered relationship with their sibling. In order to obtain this information the researcher obtained volunteers from online Yahoo support groups and SibNet, a listsery for young adult brothers and sisters of individuals with special needs. These volunteers completed a questionnaire and qualitative questions that were posted in an emailed link on SibNet and sent out in an emailed link to the Yahoo group listserv. The respondents filled out an online version of the Ways of Coping Questionnaire by Susan Folkman and Richard S. Lazarus. They were asked to "think of a time when you felt that your sibling's needs were unfairly placed before your needs." They were then asked to answer the questionnaire in the state of mind they were in when that situation arose. A correlational analysis was done on the following demographic information: birth order and the severity of their sibling's disability (placement on the autism spectrum), and the reported coping strategies. In addition, a series of qualitative questions were asked at the end of the questionnaire, in order to assess the perceived effectiveness of the coping techniques and their relation to age, birth order, and severity of sibling's disability. This information can be used to help friends, family members, and therapists of these siblings know what strategies they generally use, how effective they are, and how they vary in relation to birth order and severity of the sibling's disability. |
